EVENING People.

Congress Votes To Rename Building For Eisenhower

October 27, 1999

President Eisenhower's name would grace Washington's most distinguished office building under legislation sent to President Clinton.

The ornate Old Executive Office Building--now occupied by the vice president and White House branch staff--would become the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building under legislation passed Tuesday by the House.

The Senate passed the bill last week.

Eisenhower served in the building in the early 1930s as an aide to Gen. Douglas MacArthur and is credited with saving it from demolition during his presidency.

Eisenhower, an Army general and native of Abilene, Kan., led the Allied invasion of Europe and became the nation's 34th president.

Former Kansas GOP Sen. Bob Dole lobbied for the change as "something that will touch the heart of every World War II veteran, indeed every American who remembers Dwight D. Eisenhower as one of America's greatest 20th Century leaders in peace and war."